Review: Dark Justice – Dominion
Imagine if you will a book that combines the artistic style of a Blade Runner movie, the science fiction setting of a DOOM video game, the zombie madness of The Walking Dead, and sets it all in the rich post apocalyptic universe of 2000 AD and Judge Dredd. This is Dark Justice – Dominion.
This volume encompasses a six-story arc in Judge Dredd Magazine (#386-391). The arc opens with a beautifully drawn and colored look at empty space that slowly pulls back to reveal the Dark Judges Death, Fire and Mortis floating in the vastness of space. Though it is not germane to this story, those three find themselves there after being defeated in battle by Judge Dredd and Judge Anderson in an earlier arc. With supernaturally bad timing the supply ship Solips, on a supply run from Earth to an isolated colony, arrives just in time to impale the husk of Judge Death on its antenna. As is so often the case when watching horror movies, you find yourself shaking your head as the unwitting crew decide to take a space walk and remove Judge Death from their ship’s antenna. I’m sure you can imagine what happens next.
Eventually the Solips arrives at the colony and we meet the character who has been narrating this story for us; Riggins, the science officer of the Solips. She has been awakened from cryo sleep and is attending a party celebrating the Solips’ successful supply run. Riggins and her commander, possessed by the incorporeal spirits of the Dark Judges, are used to facilitate a coup and in the scuffle Riggins is left unconscious. In a scene reminiscent of the opening episode of AMC’s The Walking Dead, Riggins awakens eight days later to nothing but corpses in the hospital she is in. As she makes her way to Dominion City she continues to find the executed remains of colonists for as Judge Death is so fond to remind us, “The crime izzz lifffe. The szzzentenccce izzz DEATH!”  Eventually Riggins finds and is found by the surviving colonists of Dominion City and what follows is their struggle to stay alive against the Dark Judges and their zombie minions. Without giving away the ending, Riggins will survive to the end of the book. She is the narrator of our story after all. However, things are far from cheery in Dominion City.
For those who are fans of Dredd, horror, science fiction or just beautiful artwork; this book is one you should definitely consider reading. From the opening page Nick Percival’s art captivates and pulls you into the story. It is, in turn, beautiful and captivating before transforming into shocking and horrifying. The plot line does not distinguish itself in any meaningful way but this does not detract from the quality of the book. Rather, the story given to us by John Wagner serves it’s purpose admirably even if it does not present us with anything avant-garde.  Doing faithful service to the genre while being enjoyable and true to the overall setting; the story is entirely satisfactory. As a reader and reviewer, I feel it would be selfish of me to demand even more from a book that is a pleasure to look at and thoroughly entertaining.  I’ll leave you with the words of Nick Percival from his introduction to the story as I sign off and enthusiastically recommend this book.
“So what follows with ‘Dominion’ is our love letter to all things horror, particularly zombies. There are a load of them in this story and under the control of the Dark Judges, they get up to all kinds of nasty shenanigans. I would tell you more but you’ll read it all soon enough and I need to get back to my studio. I think I hear Judge Death calling me …. mussst leave … cannot resssistt.” — Nick Percival
Artwork 5 of 5 Stars
Writing 4 of 5 Stars
Overall 4.5 of 5 Stars
[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
Writer – John Wagner
Artist – Nick Percival
Author Profile
- Nemesis is a poet, writer and author of the upcoming novel The Long Game. He is a writer of science fiction and supernatural thrillers. Besides novels and short stories he writes for UK based ASAP Comics developing new stories for Level 8 and OPSEC. Nem is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point and tries to bring those experiences into his writing.
He lives and works out of his home in Riverside, California with his wife and three children. When not writing he enjoys reviewing comic books and graphic novels for ComicCrusaders.com and living the Southern California life with his family.
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